Waxing Crescent Moon
Waxing Crescent MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waxing Crescent in Capricorn

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 3% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 1 December 2043 at 14:37.

Cold Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2043 after 12 days on 16 December 2043 at 08:02.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1947".

Lunation 543 / 1496

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 543 of Meeus index or 1496 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 11 minutes and it is 55 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2043. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 27 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 36 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠179.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠179.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠204.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 1 December 2043 at 17:07 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 December 2043 at 22:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 403 964 km

The Moon is 403 964 km (251 012 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 769 km (221 686 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 25 November 2043 at 15:09 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 December 2043 at 06:19 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 07:43 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-28.421°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠28.409° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 16 December 2043 at 16:08.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 16 December 2043 at 08:02 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov